326 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



point that "forests serve as conductors of electricity 

 between the clouds, and its great reservoir, the 

 earth ; thus giving activity to the vital powers of 

 plants, and leading the clouds to discharge their 

 contents upon the earth ; a few tall trees on the 

 summit of a hill are sufficient to produce this ef- 

 fect. A charged thunder-cloud, which passes unbro- 

 ken over a bare hill, will pour down its moisture, if 

 its electricity is drawn off by these natural conduc- 

 tors." 



All the clouds that float in the atmosphere are 

 either < rganized or unorganized. The first are elec- 

 tric, and arranged with uniformity ; the latter are 

 non-electric and shapeless, like ihe rolling fogs 

 upon the surface of the earth. Clouds, while in an 

 electric and organized state, how heavily soever 

 they may be charged with moisture, remain sus- 

 pended in the atmosphere, because the globules of 

 vapor which compose them are kept from contact 

 ■with each other, by repulsion, being aflected like 

 two pith-balls similarly electrified. If two organ- 

 ized clouds in opposite states of electricity should 

 meet, the meeting is attended with a flash of light- 

 ning; the fluid from the one is discharged into the 

 other ; they are no longer in an electric state, and 

 the globules of vapor having lost their repulsive 

 force, are mingled together by the winds and im- 

 mediately descend in rain. The same eff'ect is pro- 

 duced upon an electric and organized cloud by the 

 silent and steady conducting influence of a forest of 

 trees, especially if they are standing on an eleva- 

 tion. Hence a cloud that might pass over a dry 

 and unwooded plain, and still remain suspended 

 without discharging its moisture, is deprived of its 

 electricity and turned into rain at once, on meeting 

 a forest sufliciently elevated to exert an influence 

 upon the cloud. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ONION CULTUEE. 



Mr. Editor : — "We, in this region, have read 

 with deep interest the various communications from 

 Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and elsewhere, about 

 the culture of the onion. I think we know some- 

 thing about it, having been engaged in growing 

 them for thirty years and more. I can remember 

 when a patch of onions a rod square, yielding three 

 or four bushels, would have been thought a large 

 quantity for an individual to superintend, and the 

 principle difficulty then experienced was, in causing 

 them to bottom ; they frequently turned out what 

 are termed scullions. Of late, although I cultivate 

 them by the acre, I find no difficulty in their bot- 

 toming, but do find trouble from the maggot, and 

 fear it is an increasing difficulty ; in some plices, 

 within a few miles distant, 1 have heard of entire 

 crops being lost by the ravages of this insect. Its 

 character and habits I know not. I hope that 

 some Dr. Harris, or Professor Fitz, or some wor- 

 thy successor of those gentlemen, will tell us all 

 about this insect. The onion crop has been for sev- 

 eral years worth several hundred thousand dollars 

 a year to this county. It is far more im])ortant to 

 us, therefore, to trace the origin and progress of an 

 insect, that can be seen and handled, than to pursue 

 the delusive nonentity that destroys the potato, 

 which no man has ever yet seen or imagined. 



For several days past, I have been busy in de- 

 positing seed, the ground having been so cold and 



wet that I dared not put It in before, though, as 

 a general thing, I have found the earlier I plant, the 

 better I succeed ; therefore I do every thing I can 

 by way of ap])lying fertilizers, and pulverizing the 

 soil the autumn previous. Nothing pays better than 

 the onion for care in planting, and keeping the land 

 clear of weeds. One large bunch of pai'sely would 

 prevent the bottoming of half a dozen onions. 

 May 9th, 1857. Essex. 



WHITEWASHING FRUIT TREES. 



In some agricultural works, we find the practice 

 of whitewashing fruit trees recommended, as a pre- 

 ventive of disease. In many sections this prac- 

 tice has prevailed extensively, yet a slight examina- 

 tion will satisfy any one that the fruit orchards thus 

 treated are not in better condition than those upon 

 which whitewash has never been used. 



Analogy leads us to the inference that a clean, 

 healthy skin is as indispensable to the health and 

 longevity of trees and plants, as it undoubtedly is 

 in the case of animals. The functions performed by 

 the skin of the one, and the bark of the other, are, 

 in many respects analogous ; and in the case of the 

 latter, it is generally well known that any perma- 

 nent, or even temporary obstruction of the cutane- 

 ous organs, is certain to produce disease. 



Now if we apply to the bark of a young tree, a 

 coating of any matter which will fill the pores, and 

 thus effectually prevent the action of the atmosphere, 

 and arrest the internal action also, such as lime or 

 paint, for instance, we produce a morbid state of 

 the circulating fluids, which, becoming corrupt, in- 

 stead of administering to the health of the system, 

 render it torpid and diseased. 



If any person questions the truth of this assertion, 

 we advise him to select some thrifty young tree, 

 and try the following experiment. Take a ten inch 

 strip of grafting cloth — cotton cloth dipped in graft- 

 ing cement — and wrap it around the trunk, near the 

 ground. Let it be securely attached, and then dirt 

 enough placed around the tree to nearly cover the 

 cloth. In one year — we are assured, for we have not 

 personally tried it — that tree will be dead! 



Or, let him mix a coat of tar and Spanish brown — 

 or indeed, any other colored pigment, and give the 

 body of any healthy and vigorous young tree a 

 coating of it, in the same way that whitewash is ap- 

 plied, and watch the result. Now though white- 

 wash does not so eff"ectually exclude the air as either 

 of the substances above named, yet it does so to a 

 certain extent ; it induces a morbid action of the 

 cutaneous vessels, and by rendering the circulation 

 torpid, deranges the functions of the entire system, 

 without producing any apparent benefit whateve:. 

 to the tree. 



If moss or insects are to be removed, sand and 

 soap suds may be used, and the trees washed down 

 with soft water ; but in no case let whitewash be 

 applied. Gas tar, which has been highly recom- 



